Seeing as there are some routines that my fellow members have not been able to find on YouTube, I have decided to reveal where I normally watch videos of performances.

I was reluctant to post this on the forum in case the person that uploads the videos gets banned from YouTube. But given that this is now the second GP that has had a video thread, and none of the uploaders have been banned yet, I think I'll take the chance. But, just to be on the safe side, I will not post any direct links.

Whenever Eurosport were not showing the entire competitions live, I always used to use La Riserva's videos to fill in the gaps. However, I found the big "La Riserva Forum" logo a bit too overbearing. Also, they do not include the warm-up sessions, which I like to see (and, as we saw at the Cup of China, the warm-up can have an influence on the competition…)

But, this season, I have found another source for filling in the gaps in Eurosport's coverage. One that I find a lot more viewer-friendly.

There is somebody in Lithuania who uploads the entire Спорт-2 broadcasts to YouTube in one block (as opposed to having a playlist of individual routines). What I like about this is that, as well as the routines, you get the lead-in and the warm-up sessions.

But, what I really like is that our friend in Lithuania also uploads the gala exhibitions!!! (Although, admittedly, the Cup of China gala has had a copyright claim against it, so it is not viewable. Well, not viewable in the UK, anyway).

Now, the complicating factor is that this person seems to create a new account at the end of every month. Well, they have for the past couple of months, anyway!

The only complaint that I have is that our Lithuanian friend is a bit slow in uploading the videos. For example, they only uploaded the NHK Short Programmes in the wee small hours last night and the Free Programmes this morning. And the Gala has yet to be uploaded. But, that is only a minor thing. Hey, it's better getting them a couple of days late than not getting them at all!

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

Last edited by CaroLiza_fan; 11-26-2012 at 02:04 PM.
Reason: Just discovered I have been using the wrong auto-text for the "big grin" emoticon!

And, for July/August (no Figure Skating, but all manner of other sports), the user-name is: Centravoj

Also, I'm not sure if it's the same person or not, but somebody in Lithuania has a YouTube channel of archive Olympic footage, which includes the Ladies SP and FS from the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMWvqmoHVdE ). I haven't watched it myself yet, but I'm sure it will be very interesting to see how the sport has changed (or not!) between then and now.

Meanwhile, I have also found somebody in Spain that has also put up the entire Спорт-2 broadcasts from some of the competitions at Skate America, Skate Canada, and the Cup of Russia. Their user name is MachineFSkating

What I like is that they have put all their videos from each GP into a single playlist, so that they are easy to find, rather than scrolling through lots of other videos trying to find the skating videos.

On the other hand, the videos in the playlists are a mixture of full competitions and individual routines, and there is a lot of duplication (not just between the individual routines and the full competitions, but there are also multiple copies of individual routines!)

But, what I really don't like is that all the videos have been uploaded BACK-TO-FRONT!!! I suppose this is to try to prevent the original broadcaster from spotting their logo (as it will be in the wrong position, as well as looking weird) and making a claim. So, unless you can be bothered to watch it on a mirror, it is very hard to decipher what is written on the graphics!

WOW!!! I didn't know YouTube could do videos in 1080p quality!!! Right, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this user from now on!

But, just be aware that this is not the full coverage. This is the same coverage as I watched on the TV on Sunday. But yesterday (before our Lithuanian friend uploaded the full Спорт-2 Gala broadcast), I found some videos of the last hour of NHK's own broadcast of the gala, and there were bits that were not shown on Eurosport.

For example, there was a very impressive group routine at the start of the 2nd half that Eurosport did not show. This can be seen at the start of "2012 NHK Trophy Gala 4-1". This video is the first of a series of 4 uploaded by tashidale, but they have not been put together as a playlist. But, this series is not the full coverage either as the Shibutanis are not shown (they should have been between the 1st and 2nd videos).